


safe place.

by jiclipse



Series: agere fics. [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, M/M, Very fluffy, i wrote this at 2 am uh, implied kagehina, tsukki and yams aren't really dating they're just close friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:34:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28366245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jiclipse/pseuds/jiclipse
Summary: “tadashi, it’s okay. you’re safe. you don’t need to rush yourself.”‘you’re safe’ rang through yamaguchi’s head. those two words sent him over the edge and finally made him give in to the overwhelming cloud in his mind.
Relationships: Tsukishima Kei & Yamaguchi Tadashi
Series: agere fics. [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2077410
Comments: 5
Kudos: 98





	safe place.

**Author's Note:**

> this is my first fic. please be nice :,)

_oh god. run. go. run. bathroom. now._ yamaguchi’s mind screamed at him as he sat in his last class. he wasn’t quite sure what set off this episode, but he knew there was no way for him to get out of it or suppress it until he got home; he still had to go to practice after this class. it only made it worse that his best friend tsukishima was out at the library picking something up when he could’ve been in class ready to walk with yamaguchi to practice. finally after a painfully long five minutes of waiting, the last bell rung.

it took no time at all for yamaguchi to sprint his way down the hallway to the boys’ bathroom. the large handicapped stall at the far corner of the bathroom was open, luckily. after locking himself in the large stall, he set his bag down and pushed his back against the wall. what’s gotten into him? nothing happened today. nothing at all to set him off. was there something his subconscious was trying to tell him? did he forget to take his medication this morning? did he forget something? what, for god’s sake, what was the issue?

then it clicked.

yamaguchi hadn’t regressed in weeks, nearing a month. the stress (which he was usually decent at handling) had begun to pile up again. considering the essay, history project, and literature presentation that were all assigned today and due next week, the stress was only getting worse. now more than ever had yamaguchi wanted to lock himself in his room and curl up with his stuffies. over the year he’d been regressing he managed to learn how to help himself while in headspace. it was no easy feat, but he managed without a caregiver for a long while.

here he was though, panicking in the school bathroom. alone, other than sound of students stampeding to get out of the school just outside the bathroom. as the next few minutes passed, yamaguchi had sunk to the floor and hugged his knees to his chest, hiding his face as he cried and tried to control his breathing. he needed comfort. he needed someone he knew that would calm him down. who better to call for than his best friend? yamaguchi pulls his phone out of the front pocket of his backpack with a shaky hand and opens his conversation with tsukishima.

_tsukki, can you come to the_  
_?bathroom outside our class_

_yea, omw. ill tell daichi_  
_we’ll be late._

_thank you_

yamaguchi returned his phone to its place in his bag before closing his eyes. it didn’t take long for tsukishima to walk into the bathroom, barely taking a look at the stalls before heading to the biggest one.

“hey, open up. it’s just me.” yamaguchi quickly kneeled and reached to unlock the stall door, his hands still shaking badly with tear stains covering his cheeks. tsukishima opened the door as soon as he heard the lock click, slowly going into the stall and locking the door behind him. “what happened, tadashi?”

yamaguchi sniffled and reached for tsukishima, being met with a hesitant hand reaching back towards his. it took a moment for tsukishima to pull yamaguchi into a hug, but as soon as he did, the smaller boy practically melted in his touch. the small whine yamaguchi let out made tsukishima relax and try his best to calm his freckled friend.

“what happened? c’mon, talk to me. i can’t help you feel better if i don’t know what’s wrong.”

“j-just… really stressed out. i guess it didn’t hit me until today. sorry for bothering you, tsukki.”

“stop that. you know you don’t bother me with stuff like this. you can’t help that it happens.” tsukishima gently ran a hand up and down yamaguchi’s back, sighing quietly. “do i need to take you home? i’m sure coach ukai wouldn’t be upset with you for missing a day; i can tell him what happened once i know you’re home safe.”

yamaguchi managed to calm down enough to stabilize his breathing, thanks to tsukishima’s presence alone. the only problem at hand was the creeping cloud of fuzziness entering his mind. it took everything in him to answer tsukishima and keep himself from succumbing to the welcoming warmth of the cloud. “yea. but i think i can go alone.”

“i’m not letting you go alone. i know you get spacey after these episodes and i’m not risking you getting hurt on the way home.”

“tsukki i live ten m-”

“nope. don’t want to hear it. c’mon, i’m walking you home.” yamaguchi responded to the taller boy’s statement with a sigh and began to stand up.

about halfway through the silent walk to yamaguchi’s house, tsukishima wrapped his arm around yamaguchi. “you know i’m here if you need me, right? i know i’m an asshole but i care about you a lot.”

“i-i know, tsukki, thank you. i’m here for you too,” yamaguchi said in a soft tone. a soft blush rose on the boy’s freckled cheeks at the small show of affection, which only caused the fuzzy cloud to get thicker and thicker. yamaguchi tried to walk a faster to get home and lock himself away in his room, but tsukishima wasn’t about to let that happen.

“tadashi, it’s okay. you’re safe. you don’t need to rush yourself.”

‘you’re safe’ rang through yamaguchi’s head. those two words sent him over the edge and finally made him give in to the overwhelming cloud in his mind. slipping into little space was strange, seeing as he wasn’t home, but that didn’t seem to change much. the small boy let out a whine and stopped walking, causing tsukishima to stop as well.

“what’s wrong?” tsukishima asked, looking at the freckled boy beside him. yamaguchi responded with another small whine and held onto tsukishima’s shirt.

“piggy back ride? please?” yamaguchi asked in the softest tone of voice tsukishima had ever heard from him. how could he say no to those puppy dog eyes? tsukishima responded with a sigh and nodded before kneeling down and letting yamaguchi get on his back. the small boy played with tsukishima’s hair in silence the entire way back to his house.

tsukishima, at this point, had noticed the change in his friend’s behavior; quiet tone when speaking, very clingy… it was almost childlike. he wasn’t quite sure what was going on but maybe yamaguchi needed the attention. “yams? do you have your house key?”

yamaguchi tugged on his own lanyard to make the buckle in the back come undone, giving it to tsukishima. hanging on the lanyard next to his school id card was his house key; tsukishima used the key to unlock the front door and get yamaguchi inside.

tsukishima put the smaller boy down, the action being met with a loud whine of disapproval. “don’t make me treat you like a baby, tadashi,” the taller boy said in his typical tone of voice, slipping his shoes off and setting them down next to his own backpack, that he carried in one of his hands while yamaguchi wore his own. it was fairly awkward to walk holding a backpack and a boy.

“‘m not a baby!” yamaguchi pouted at tsukishima and put his backpack on the floor, kicking off his shoes angrily, like a toddler would.

“you’re acting like one, so stop it.” tsukishima’s voice tured cold and stern, making yamaguchi’s little tantrum subside in mere seconds. now the small boy just looked sad, which made tsukishima’s face soften. “i’m sorry, okay? i didn’t mean to upset you.”

the freckled boy had finally begun to realize what was happening and forced himself to be big just for a bit longer to explain everything.

“i’m so sorry, tsukki- i didn’t mean to- um… i-i’m sorry. please don’t think differently of me after this,” yamaguchi took a deep breath, “i’m a little.”

“a little what?”

“no, just a little. have you ever heard of little space? or age regression?”

“um…” tsukishima paused to think for a moment, before his face lit up in realization. “... oh. so what happened just now was..?”

“yes, i’m sorry. i didn’t mean to. i just haven’t gone into it in so long and i was really stressed. you make me feel safe enough to do it. please don’t feel like you need to do anything; go back to practice. i’m okay here alone.”

“no, i’m not leaving you alone. i’m gonna stay for a while. i know more about this than you think i do; hinata is a little too. kageyama is his caregiver. he said it wasn’t much different from caring for a child, so i imagine it won’t be difficult. that is, if you're comfortable with me taking care of you.” if tsukishima was honest, he hardly listened to kageyama, but he got the gist of what the black haired boy told him when he asked why hinata was so clingy.

“i'm perfectly comfortable with you but... tsukki, you don’t need to. i’ll be fine on my own.” as much as yamaguchi wanted to take his friend up on that offer, he didn’t want to put the taller boy behind in volleyball or his studies. more than anything, he didn’t want to be a burden.

tsukishima stepped towards yamaguchi and looked down at him, gently patting his head. “c’mon, silly. i’m right here, you’re not alone.” his typically cold gaze softened into a caring one; one that yamaguchi saw very rarely. he slowly pulled the small boy into a hug yet again.

without thinking, yamaguchi let himself slip back into little space. tsukishima was his safe place, regardless of how mean he was occasionally. a small whine came from the freckled boy as his arms wrapped around his friend, to which the taller responded with a smile.

“it’s alright, little one. i’ve got you.”

tsukishima carefully picked up yamaguchi, holding him on his own hip like he would a baby. yamaguchi laid his head on the other boy’s shoulder as his thumb found its way to his mouth. as the taller boy carried his small friend to his bedroom, he smiled at the quiet suckling noises coming from a calm yamaguchi.

yamaguchi’s room was practically spotless aside from a few papers and textbooks laying out for his homework. tsukishima could only wonder how the boy could keep it so tidy if he was stressed enough to forget about his coping mechanism for the stress itself. it barely took any time at all for yamaguchi to reach for one of his stuffies with a small grunt; a purple stegosaurus tsukishima had gifted him for his most recent birthday.

“want your dino?” tsukishima set yamaguchi down on his bed and gave him the stegosaurus. the small boy gave his caregiver a big, toothy grin in response and hugged the stuffie tightly to his chest.

“dada dino!” yamaguchi said happily. tsukishima let out a small chuckle before speaking.

“that’s right, tadashi. dada gave you that dino for your birthday. and now dada wants you to get all curled up in bed, can you do that for him?”

“mhm! cuddles please?”

“of course you can have cuddles, precious.”

while yamaguchi got comfortable, tsukishima quickly texted their captain to tell him yamaguchi wasn’t feeling well and they’d both be missing practice that day. afterwards, the two boys cuddled until both of them fell asleep in each other’s arms, yamaguchi whispering one last thing before drifting off to dreamland.

“night night, dada.”

“goodnight, my little tadashi.”


End file.
